by With the year turning into 2021, our hopes and desires are all renewed (at least for most of us). New perspectives are on the table, new faces, new cars, new jobs…. well, I click on all of the above and rest my case. Yet, one very interesting aspect is that we also are facing a new era… an era of business that promises to be much more customer-centric, much more customer interactive, and much more “home-based”. Digital is by far no longer a plan… it is an action verb.
When we look into market research, market intelligence, competitive intelligence, and all the variants of a customer/market focus observation job, we notice that here we also change how to “observe”.
Most of all, I think there is still a bit of confusion on what is eBusiness or Digital Business Management, and what is eCommerce… and companies that are now gearing up to rip the benefits of c19 are faced with the philosophical chicken and egg situation…yet, it is quite simple: eBusiness or Digital Business, will mostly focus on the optimization of internal processes with online and traditional channels to market and supply… look at this as the touch base points of sorts. eCommerce on the other hand, is much narrower, it is the raw “buy & sell” using the internet.
Now you might be asking why am talking about fundamentals? Well in the business we are in, having clear parameters are paramount to true insight, we need to have a clear understanding of what we are talking about, in order to be able to activate the customer-centricity we are interested in.
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Looking into the customer-centricity, and more importantly in the eBusiness era, we need to focus on two different sides of the coin: Buy-side eCommerce and sell-side eCommerce. In between, we have this wonderful thing called the Internet and our organization.
Of all the different butterfly effects unleashed by C19, having a real understanding of the competitiveness on both side of the eCommerce (Sell-side/Buy-side) will place companies in a much better efficacy edge. The reason being is that lots of companies are now sourcing locally (digitally) in order to avoid macro-environmental constrains in business supply. I give you a very interesting example of the almighty Amazon and its prime subscription to next day delivery. In Brazil, they have something that is working in an even faster and more customer-centric manner called Mercado Livre, with delivery on the same day! And c19 just boosted their sales to the stratosphere.
Based on continuous market observation, market research and a sense of what is coming next, smaller (at least smaller than Amazon) companies are being able to rip very good benefits of this new business era.
With the “new year” and not at all gone pandemic, companies will have to leverage their digital influence and footprint, and the only way to do that is to have a clear view on the fundamentals, and more importantly, equip your research and intelligence team with the necessary tools to leverage this. We are going digital indefinitely, most of us will never go back to the “office”, “home-office” is the new talent fishing bait, and like it or not…a new era of business has started, with a very dynamic value proposition.
It would be great to hear from you, and understand how the “new normal” is changing your views on research and intelligence…
Stay healthy, stay inside, stay focused
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